Exclusive poll shows just one in five West Australians believe Australia should get into a war over Taiwan

Just one in five West Australians believe Australia should get involved in a war over Taiwan, according to a new poll. And it comes as Mark McGowan said he was at a loss as to why Prime Minister Scott Morrison was targeting China over tariffs when Australia enjoyed a mass trade surplus with the Asian giant. “I don’t understand why we would say the system isn’t working for us when we are in that position,” the Premier said. The exclusive poll was commissioned by The West Australian after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the possibility of conflict between China and the US over Taiwan’s independence couldn’t be discounted. The People’s Voice Poll showed 19 per cent of the 412 WA residents surveyed believed Australia should become involved if war erupted between China and Taiwan. The survey, by Painted Dog Research late last month, showed men (26 per cent) were twice as likely as women (12 per cent) to support Australia’s involvement in a potential conflict. Just over half of respondents — 54 per cent — were against Australia getting drawn into a war over the island state, which China’s Communist Party considers a breakaway province. The over-60s were the most likely to be against the prospect of conflict (60 per cent) and 27 per cent of those surveyed didn’t have an opinion. Over the Anzac Day long weekend, Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo placed conflict on the national agenda when he warned the “drums of war” were beating louder. Mr McGowan later said it was “not wise” to use the language of war when “dealing with a superpower”. Yesterday, the Premier cautioned Mr Morrison against “attacking one country” as the Prime Minister delivered a speech that placed China in the cross-hairs over trade sanctions levelled against Australia. The Prime Minister told a Perth USAsia Centre event there was heightened competition in the Indo-Pacific region, but that does not “justify coercion”. Responding to excerpts of the speech, which had been published by The West yesterday, Mr McGowan told 6PR: “If I was the Prime Minister I wouldn’t be attacking one country ... I’d be saying if there’s a concern about tariffs it should be a concern everywhere, not in respect to one country.” He said the resilience of the national economy to the pandemic was directly related to WA’s resources sector, adding: “Last year we sold over $100 billion worth of products to China, we bought $4 billion back. So we have a $96 billion trade surplus.”